[Sca-cooks] What kind of class would you attend?

Patricia Dunham chimene at ravensgard.org
Thu Jul 2 12:26:46 PDT 2009


So glad someone mentioned reading it aloud.  Kind of like reading 
Chaucer out loud, even if you've never had a Middle-English class, 8-)

It may take a couple of passes, first sounding out things, then 
speeding up and listening to what's actually coming in your ears... 
This has worked for me with "Two Fifteenth Century", especially. 
(This was the first REAL cookery book I ever found, I think, OETS of 
course, in the U library, before I even found the Society.  My DH got 
me my own copy eventually.)

chimene

>Shoshanna wrote:
>>  I would like to see a class on reading and understanding period recipes.
>>
>>  I can hold my own with cooking (usually) and my food turns out pretty tasty
>>  (usually) but I know that when I start to read period recipes - either in
>>  English, old English, or any other language my eyes begin to glaze over and
>>  I loose my concentration because it is not familiar to me.
>
>As far as i know, we don't have any cookbooks or recipes in Old 
>English - that's the language of Beowulf. Generally, Middle English 
>is considered to begin after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 
>and to extend well into the 15th century, some date it to 1470 or 
>thereabouts.
>
>We do have a number of cookbooks in late Middle English, such as 
>Forme of Curye, circa 1390. One thing i've found that helps is 
>reading a recipe out loud. Some of the words look odd, but when you 
>hear them, it's easier to figure out the modern words - well, once 
>you know that yogh - the letter that sort of looks like a "3" - is 
>basically a "y", and thorn - the letter that sort of looks like an 
>oddly long "p" - is a "th". And that "nym", which appears over and 
>over, means "take".
>
>The other is the fabulous edition, "Curye on Inglysch" by Constance 
>B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler. It has a very comprehensive glossary 
>which helps with obscure words.
>
>Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
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